Which has sort of been my point during all this folderol. Easier to stay out, than get out.

A lot of stuff has to be restarted. Investigations have been set back, folks have missed medical care, back pay has accrued, and a lot more. Work loads will have to be doubled up on, important work will have have to be stalled. It is about as inefficient a way to "make a point" if you're entire point is "we spend too much gottverdammt money."

But, then what do I know? I'm only in the private sector, and can only understand the importance of maintenance and upkeep, and rolling out labor costs, and juggling deliveries and schedules.

This hissy fit has cost the taxpayers a lot. In the case of National Parks and Utah, it has cost the state money taken from their own tax base, to keep selected park locations open, that their citizens have ALREADY paid for. It is doubling down on DERP, and calling it "vision." It is wasteful, profligate, and immensely stupid, and yet, folks are cheering because it's "their" side. It's all our sides as citizens, and folks just threw away dollars for a hissy. Does that sound particularly "fiscally prudent" to you?

Then again, these are people who consider "scratch tickets" as a "sound investment"...

Alphax:Oh, and that huge backlog at the VA that everyone complains about? I think it was starting to finally improve.. until this shutdown.

But did rich people and corporations get a tax cut? see, that's how Republicans measure success. they only care about veterans if/when they can be used in some sort of photo op. actually spending money on vets isn't something they like to do. flag waving? sure. medicare care? naw...f*ck that. the vets can just bootstrap themselves out of cancer or whatever.

There are already GOP members on CNN trying to spin this as if John Boehner deserves a profile in courage award.

I really hope people are smart enough to not let up on the criticism. What happened wasn't Congress in good order, it was one group trying to take everything over and blow the place up. Historically I hope we remember it for the shameful episode that it is.

Alphax:Oh, and that huge backlog at the VA that everyone complains about? I think it was starting to finally improve.. until this shutdown.

No snark, I'd like to hear the Daily Show weigh in on that. They've been the one media entity trying to hold DoVA's feet to the fire, and stuck with the story even when it rotated to the bottom of the news cycle.

LOL, look what the derpers are posting on Facebook. This is supposedly from the "trucker protest". You know the one where a handful of people and a pick-up truck showed up? It sure bears a striking resemblance to the truck strike they had in Italy.

You not going to see this on the news but there a big trucker protest going on right now in washington d.c. they are blocking all the major highways in protest of what going on in washington. Facebook is blocking the liking and sharing of pics like this. SO REPOST IT AND KEEP IT GOING

But then if all your side has are lies, threats, and "unskewed polls" while being wrong on every level; what else would you expect.

UNC_Samurai:Alphax: Oh, and that huge backlog at the VA that everyone complains about? I think it was starting to finally improve.. until this shutdown.

No snark, I'd like to hear the Daily Show weigh in on that. They've been the one media entity trying to hold DoVA's feet to the fire, and stuck with the story even when it rotated to the bottom of the news cycle.

Rachel Maddow has covered it periodically, even getting a VA administrator on eventually to get a bit of a grilling over it.

Looking out my window right now, I'm seeing large groups of people headed into the Dept of Trnaportation for the first time in almost three weeks. What a collosal waste this has been. And all in an effort to keep people like my wife from getting health insurance?

T-Servo:Looking out my window right now, I'm seeing large groups of people headed into the Dept of Trnaportation for the first time in almost three weeks. What a collosal waste this has been. And all in an effort to keep people like my wife from getting health insurance?

I don't think it was ever about Obamacare. Obamacare was simply the impossible negotiating point they've started from.

T-Servo:And all in an effort to keep people like my wife from getting health insurance?

That's the infuriating thing... It's been a rough decade for me and the wife, and having MAHealth for the last couple of years has been a huge help. From my point of view, it's been very successful. The GOP is scared shiatless that this is what the rest of the country is going to be thinking in a few years.

heavymetal:LOL, look what the derpers are posting on Facebook. This is supposedly from the "trucker protest". You know the one where a handful of people and a pick-up truck showed up? It sure bears a striking resemblance to the truck strike they had in Italy.

You not going to see this on the news but there a big trucker protest going on right now in washington d.c. they are blocking all the major highways in protest of what going on in washington. Facebook is blocking the liking and sharing of pics like this. SO REPOST IT AND KEEP IT GOING

But then if all your side has are lies, threats, and "unskewed polls" while being wrong on every level; what else would you expect.

Something tellsme that if this were really happening, our local 24-hour news station here in DC would say something. They'll report if a single lane is blocked on the 95, but I guess the White House censorship is in overdrive this morning.

Bontesla:T-Servo: Looking out my window right now, I'm seeing large groups of people headed into the Dept of Trnaportation for the first time in almost three weeks. What a collosal waste this has been. And all in an effort to keep people like my wife from getting health insurance?

I don't think it was ever about Obamacare. Obamacare was simply the impossible negotiating point they've started from.

The shutdown happened because that was the Tea Party plan.

I agree, but they made the ACA the rallying point. What gets me is that even when CBS news points out how groups like Heritage Action planned this shutdown for months, they fail to draw the irony that the ACA was originally Heritage's farking idea in the first place.

shower_in_my_socks:And McConnell, of the "fiscally responsible" party that just shut the government down over spending, got a couple of billion dollars for his state added to the bill to reopen the government.

In fairness, the couple billion dollars you're speaking of was for a dam project, and it was already approved by both House and Senate earlier in the summer. Sens. Feinstein wanted it included in this bill.

keylock71:That's the infuriating thing... It's been a rough decade for me and the wife, and having MAHealth for the last couple of years has been a huge help. From my point of view, it's been very successful. The GOP is scared shiatless that this is what the rest of the country is going to be thinking in a few years.

I have a friend working as a consultant on the exchanges. And while he says the roll out had issues, the overwhelming response by people has been positive. The more parts of the ACA that come into affect, the more people find out how good it is, which means the GOP will find it harder and harder to take away. So this was another attempt at it. By the end of Obama's term, when it is fully in place, the GOP will be a shell of itself.

T-Servo:heavymetal: LOL, look what the derpers are posting on Facebook. This is supposedly from the "trucker protest". You know the one where a handful of people and a pick-up truck showed up? It sure bears a striking resemblance to the truck strike they had in Italy.

You not going to see this on the news but there a big trucker protest going on right now in washington d.c. they are blocking all the major highways in protest of what going on in washington. Facebook is blocking the liking and sharing of pics like this. SO REPOST IT AND KEEP IT GOING

But then if all your side has are lies, threats, and "unskewed polls" while being wrong on every level; what else would you expect.

Something tellsme that if this were really happening, our local 24-hour news station here in DC would say something. They'll report if a single lane is blocked on the 95, but I guess the White House censorship is in overdrive this morning.

Like I said yesterday, this is almost enough to pay for NASA, the National Science (including all grants), and the National Park Service for a year. Damn "fiscal conservatives" piss money away like it's water.

T-Servo:Bontesla: T-Servo: Looking out my window right now, I'm seeing large groups of people headed into the Dept of Trnaportation for the first time in almost three weeks. What a collosal waste this has been. And all in an effort to keep people like my wife from getting health insurance?

I don't think it was ever about Obamacare. Obamacare was simply the impossible negotiating point they've started from.

The shutdown happened because that was the Tea Party plan.

I agree, but they made the ACA the rallying point. What gets me is that even when CBS news points out how groups like Heritage Action planned this shutdown for months, they fail to draw the irony that the ACA was originally Heritage's farking idea in the first place.

Agreed. The media coverage has been awful.

Even Ezra Klein has been awful. He's been saying that Obamacare has been a complete failure. That's absurd. We've been successfully rolling out pieces of Obamacare for years.

The launch of the website allowing early sign-up for a program that doesn't begin until 2014 has been a failure for the states that have refused to provide their own resources.

WinoRhino:keylock71: That's the infuriating thing... It's been a rough decade for me and the wife, and having MAHealth for the last couple of years has been a huge help. From my point of view, it's been very successful. The GOP is scared shiatless that this is what the rest of the country is going to be thinking in a few years.

I have a friend working as a consultant on the exchanges. And while he says the roll out had issues, the overwhelming response by people has been positive. The more parts of the ACA that come into affect, the more people find out how good it is, which means the GOP will find it harder and harder to take away. So this was another attempt at it. By the end of Obama's term, when it is fully in place, the GOP will be a shell of itself.

The GOP will start citing how Obamacare was their idea - they were simply against things like the mandate.

The penalty for the first year will be less than a hundred bucks but will eventually cap at a little over 600. It'll remain unpopular.

No, that's 24 billion out of the economy. What it cost the government will actually be quite a bit MORE, because they're going to have to pay back all the people they farked over, write off all the things that broke because of the shutdown (specific example, a lotof research projects were put on hold, and as a result the experiments fell apart and the materials (or animals) involved broke/died, for NO REASON AT ALL.

It will probably be a few hundred billion above what "The Government™" would have spent without this little hostage-taking exercise and the cost of our permanently damaged credit is going to be with us, repeating, forever.